UPDATE 8
27 July 2024
Dear Supporter,
Welcome to Save Mental Health’s Update 8. We have a lot of news and information to share with you this month.
Firstly, though we would like to introduce you to Lucy Beney of Thoughtful Therapists, who is our Correspondent for Child Mental Health. Lucy is an Integrative Counsellor working in private practice and is also a facilitator for the Tuning into Teens parenting programme. We are very pleased and excited to have Lucy working with us.
Lucy’s first article for Save Mental Health is: What’s Going On? An Overview of Young People’s Mental Health. The article provides an overview of issues undermining the emotional wellbeing of young people today. These include: social media; pornography; self-diagnosis; and body image. Over the next few months, Lucy hopes to address all the areas covered in this article more fully, with an individual piece on each topic. We look forward to reading these and hope you do too.
Here is the rest of the news for this Update:
Esses v. Tatchell – 1:0
James Esses has appeared twice on GB News recently, debating LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. In the first debate on Patrick Christys’ show, James supported Suella Braverman’s criticism of the Pride ‘Progress’ flag. Braverman had made a speech stating that “What the progress flag says to me is one monstrous thing: that I was a member of a government that presided over the mutilation of our children in our hospitals and from our schools.” While James Esses supported her position, Peter Tatchell said that Braverman’s comments “could have been made by Neo-Nazis like the National Front and BNP years ago.” Just watch Patrick Christys’ reaction!
In his second appearance on GB News with Peter Tatchell, this time on Good Afternoon Britain, James Esses condemned a primary school for posting online a photo of infants celebrating ‘Pride Day’. He argued that these children were being ‘ideologically indoctrinated’ and sexualised at school by their teachers. Peter Tatchell defended the school, stating that “No primary school is teaching children about sex” but presenter Emily Carver pointed out that one of the boys was holding up a sign saying, “I can’t even think straight”. Watch the two videos and see who you think wins these debates.
Call to action
If you are one of our therapist supporters look out for a message from Save Mental Health this weekend. James Esses is setting-up a venture designed to tackle the politicisation of the therapeutic professions and to offer clients a much-needed alternative.
Landmark Whistleblower Case involving British Psychological Society
We are grateful to Psychreg for giving us permission to post this piece on our website.
Professor Nigel MacLennan, a former trustee and president elect of the BPS, brought a claim against them after he was expelled from the Society in May 2021. The article explains how he was “elected President by the Society’s 60,000 members on a pledge to reform the organisation.” During the time he was in post, Professor MacLennan discovered “significant corporate governance failures within the BPS, including potentially illegal activities, which he reported to the Charity Commission.” However, he was dismissed from his position following claims of “persistent bullying” which he denies. If successful, his claim against the BPS could extend whistleblowing protections to trustees, school and NHS governors and others. We wish Professor MacLennan good luck with his case.
Daily Sceptic covers Dr Sherwood’s story on Cass Review
An updated version of Dr Carole Sherwood’s article on obstacles to the implementation of the Cass Review was published in the Daily Sceptic on 10 July. She then appeared on the Sceptic podcast to discuss the article, in which she raised concerns about the Government’s plan to introduce a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban. If you are also concerned about this ban, please write to your MP. You can read the reasons why this is important on the Free Speech Union’s campaign page here.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution
This recently published book by Eric Kaufmann makes the case that ‘woke’ arose from liberal taboos about race in the 1960s and that it came to be weaponised and extended to other areas, such as sexuality and gender. He suggests that this process is driven by values rather than fear and that it is likely to accelerate as ‘culturally leftist’ generations join the workforce and electorate. Taboo is described as ‘the authoritative study of the radical shift in values that has turbo-charged the culture wars of our time, and a road-map for how we might leave them behind’. You can buy a copy here. If you are interested in this subject matter and enjoy studying, have a look at the online 15 week course Eric runs at the University of Buckingham.